2.5. The Aspects Assessed in Recount Text
Considering that this research uses analytical scoring method, there were five aspects assessed in students’ recount text writing comprising content,
organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. There was limitation in each aspect of writing due to th
e researchers’ concern. Further information about each aspect and its limitation is presented in the following:
2.5.1. Content
Content is the heart of a great text Onukwugha, 2007. It is only through content people can judge whether a text is worth-reading or not Hall, 1982 as
cited in Nik et al., 2010:55. People would like to read a text if they think it is entertaining, interesting, informing, or important. According to Brown
2003:244, the content of a piece of writing can be categorized as excellent- good if it is relevant to the topic, easy to understand, well-developed, and presenting the
writer’s ideas. In this research, the aspect of content was limited to the students’ ability in writing a recount text which was relevant to the topic and the way how
they developed ideas.
2.5.2. Organization
To have a good piece of writing, a writer must construct well-organized sentences. Qian 2010:15 considers that having well-organized sentences and
paragraphs is the primary factor to evade a writer from producing global errors. Besides, it will let readers experience easiness in understanding what is written.
Consequently, those students who learn English as a foreign language have to work harder on content, organization, and language to develop good writing
Huang, 2011:505. In order to have well organized-sentences in a paragraph, Oshima and
Hogue 1998:18 suggest students to have the elements of unity and coherence in their writing. These two elements can be created by sequencing the sentences in a
logical manner. The following is the further discussion about what unity and coherence in a paragraph are.
a. Unity
Unity means oneness. It concerns about whether or not a piece of writing focuses on the same idea. To have unity in a paragraph, students are only allowed
to discuss one main idea Oshima and Hogue, 2007:67. It means that in a unified paragraph all sentences have to support the main idea. The unity in a paragraph
can be interrupted if there is a single sentence which does not support the main idea Shrader, 2009. So, it is important for students to ensure that all the
supporting sentences in their paragraph are linked to one another. To overcome this problem, students have to make a clear and good topic
sentence Bram, 1995:20. Through a good and clear topic sentence, students will be able to control the following information inserted. In accordance with
Bram’s argument, Kies 1995 proposes two simple ways to have a unified paragraph
which are setting one topic sentence as the focus discussed in a paragraph controlling the content of supporting sentences to ensure they do not discuss
different ideas from the topic. Students can start this activity by listing any points they want to discuss. In this case, each point listed will be further discussed in a
paragraph. So if a student has five points in the list, it means that they will have five paragraphs in their writing later. Then from each point listed, students have to
make one clear topic sentence that they can use to start the paragraph. After that, students have to make a list of some outlines or supporting details relating to each
topic sentence that they have. At this point, students have to make sure that the outlines or supporting details listed for each topic sentence will help them to have
clearer explanation and do not discuss any new ideas.
b. Coherence
Another requirement of a well-organized paragraph is coherence. According to Pennington 2008, coherence refers to how well a writer organizes
his sentences and paragraphs to construct a clear and understandable text. It is a matter about whether or not a paragraph is easy to read and understand; the
supporting sentences are in a logical order and the ideas are connected by the use of appropriate transition signals Oshima and Hogue, 1998:18. As what Shrader
2010 says, a paragraph is coherent when its sentences are related to each other, not only in content but also in grammatical structures and choice of words. To
conclude, coherence deals with on how a sentence supports other sentences so that readers can get and understand the information from a text easily. It is a matter of
giving readers a sense of continuity which leads them to have easier elaboration in digesting the message of a text.
However, Kies 1995 notices that developing coherent paragraph in writing is more difficult to achieve compared with speaking. For this problem,
Oshima and Hogue 2007:79, Pennington 2008, and Shrader 2010 try to offer four ways that might help students to produce a coherent paragraph: repeating key
nouns, using pronouns which refer back to key nouns, using appropriate transition words and phrase first, for example, in conclusion, etc. and arranging the
sentences in a logical order which is predictable topic sentence – major details –
minor details. Regarding that the school as the subject of the research was implementing
2006 Institutional Based Curriculum which demanded English teaching and learning using Genre Based Approach, the searcher would like to add one more
aspect in the term of organization that was generic structure. Generic structure is a unique pattern that each genre has. Each generic structure usually consists of more
than one pattern. In each pattern, students will be further informed about what details they should tell. So, by following the correct generic structure, students
will be able to produce a text which meets readers’ expectation in the term of social purpose.
2.5.3. Grammar
Javed et al. 2013:132 say, “The ultimate meaning of writing skill is to
construct grammatically correct sentences and to communicate a meaning to the reader.” In the same direction, Suprianti et al. 2013:2 state that one of the
aspects a writer needs to have in producing a good piece of writing is a good knowledge of grammar use. Further, Karani 2008:10 adds that in order to have
meaningful and understandable communication, someone does not only use
vocabulary but also grammar. From those statements, we can clearly see the importance of grammatically correct sentences in constructing a good piece of
writing, helping a writer convey message in much better way, and helping readers interpret the message in a text correctly.
Dealing with the importance of grammar in writing skill, some experts come up to define what grammar is. According to Fairbairn and Winch
2011:109 and Hartwell 1985:109, grammar is a set of rules used as a guidance to help a writer construct sentences, which make sense and acceptable. It is a
fundamental principle and language structure which includes clear and correct sentence construction and the proper forms of words Batko, 2004:24. By
following the rules, students will be able to write better Woods, 2010:9. In short, we can say that grammar is a set of rules about how words are arranged to make it
meaningful. Considering that this research was intended to describe the eighth grade students’ recount text writing ability, the researcher limited the discussion
into one tense only, which was Simple Past Tense. Simple Past Tense is a tense used to tell an activity happened in the past.
Alexander 1990:127, Ansell 2000:65-66, and Uchiyama 2006:53 mention in greater details about the three usages of Simple Past Tense: to express habitual
actions in the past, to describe a situation in certain period of time in the past, to express an activity happened at the particular of time in the past. It means that it is
the only tense that allow students to rightfully express anything happened in the past. Thus, in constructing a recount text which deals with telling reader about an
experience happened in the past, students must be able to use the correct pattern of simple past tense in their sentences.
In general, the pattern of Simple Past Tense is broken down into two and will be explained directly as follows:
a. The pattern of Simple Past Tense using main verb
+ S + V2 past form + O + Adv For example: She bought a new camera last month.
S + did not + V1 basic form + O + Adv For example: She did not buy a new camera last month.
? Did + S + V1 basic form + O + Adv + ? For example: Did she buy a new camera last month?
b. The pattern of Simple Past Tense using verb “be”
+ S + be waswere + NAdjAdv For example: He was there an hour ago.
They were there an hour ago. S +be waswere + not + NAdjAdv
For example: He was not there an hour ago. They were not there an hour ago.
? Be waswere + S + NAdjAdv + ?
For example: Was he there an hour ago? Were they there an hour ago?
From the pattern above, we can see that Simple Past Tense always uses the past form of verb. The form of the verb when we use the first pattern using main
verb remains the same whether the subject is singular or plural. In contrast, for the second patter
n using verb “be” the form of verb “be” is influenced by the subject; whether it is singular or plural. If it is singular hesheit, we need to
transform “be” into “was”. Then, if it is plural I, you, they, we, we need to transform verb “be” into “were”. In using simple past tense, a writer has to
memorize which verbs belong to regular and irregular. For the regular ones, we can simply
add “-ed” in the end of the verb. Meanwhile, for the irregular ones, the only way to be able to use the proper verbs is only by memorizing them.
However, we do not need to worry about those irregular verbs because according to Bybee and Slobin 1982:265 they are only a few in numbers.
2.5.4. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a list of words with their meaning in a foreign language Hornby, 2008:1331. Then, Ghazal 2007:84 gives definition about what words
are. According to him, words are the building blocks of a language because it helps people convey the intended meaning by labelling objects, actions, and ideas.
So in simpler words, vocabulary is a stock of words used to express ideas and feeling.
To have a good piece of writing, students need to use a large variety of vocabulary to avoid reade
rs’ boredom resulted from the monotonous words used. For sure, they will need to understand and store mass of words in their head.
Besides, a great stock of vocabulary will also help them convey meanings and ideas better. Without vocabulary, a piece of writing will not be able to deliver the
message; it will have no content to share or tell to readers. It is like a car without its wheels; it will go nowhere.
Experts estimates that there are about more than one million words in English that people can use to communicate. By the large number of words,
students will have more variety of words which can best express their ideas and feelings. However, choosing appropriate word in writing is not an easy matter.
Once students fail to choose appropriate words to express the ideas, they may end up experiencing communication breakdown; it can alter the whole meaning upside
down. When this happens, readers will not be able to understand the content of their writing. Luckily, Fairbairn and Winch 2011:140-147 gives us some tips to
choose the words appropriately; they are use words appropriately, choose words appropriate with their purpose, avoid confusing the readers with unfamiliar words,
and avoid jargon. From the large number of words exists in English, Hatch and Brown
1995:218 divide them into nine classes which are called as parts of speech. They consist of article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction,
and interjection which are still classified into two: large vocabulary, the one that has major function in communication Hatch and Brown, 1995:218 and small
vocabulary. In this research, the researcher only focused on the large vocabulary which covers verb, noun, adjective, and adverb by considering that those
vocabularies dominated the students’ recount text writing. Thus, more detail
information about large vocabulary is presented respectively in the following section.
a. Verb
According to McCaskill 1990:8 and Hatch and Brown 1995:222, verb is a word that can express or signify an action. Moreover, McCaskill 1990:8
asserts that a verb can change its form to indicate person, tense, mood, voice, and number. From the form of the verb, we can see whether the subject is singular or
plural, whether it is made in reference to the person speaking, the person spoken to or the person or the thing spoken about, and even when an action happens. In
general, there are two types of verb, auxiliary verb and principal verb. However, this research will concern on principal verb because based on the size of the
available vocabularies, auxiliary verbs do not belong to large vocabulary family. Principal verb or also known as lexical verb is a verb in which a sentence
or a clause can mean nothing without its existence. Basically, principal verb is divided into two: regular verb and irregular verb. A regular verb is a verb which
its present form is added by d, or ed to form past and past participle form. Here
are the examples: Present
Past Past Participle
Live Lived
Lived Help
Helped Helped
An irregular verb is a verb which its past and past participle forms arbitrarily. This verb is also claimed as the source of most grammatical errors.
Here are the examples: Present
Past Past Participle
Put Put
Put Think
Thought Thought
Burn Burnt
Burnt Awake
Awoke Awoken
Go Went
Gone
b. Noun
Noun is a word used to name anything we can think of, including person, place, or thing Miller, 2002:38-39. It changes its form to indicate number, case,
and gender McCaskill, 1990:1. Hatch and Brown 1995:219 declare that noun can be divided into seven subclasses; they are:
1
Proper noun, e.g. Caitlyn visited her mother this afternoon.; We have a flag ceremony on Monday.; etc.
2
Common noun, e.g. We bought a new pair of shoes.; This woman was so
evil.; etc. 3
Abstract noun, e.g. I had lost faith that my prayers would be answered.; I did have some hope that he would come.; etc.
4
Concrete noun, e.g. I made some yummy cookies last week.; I lost my pencil
.; etc. 5
Countable noun, e.g. I got two pillows in my bedroom.; Aunt Jessie gave a blanket
to sleep.; etc. 6
Uncountable noun, e.g. John added too much olive oil to the salad.; You would need a little more sugar for the cake.; etc.
7
Collective noun, e.g. There was a group of houses behind the woods five years ago.; The team looked like a wreck in the second round.; etc.
c. Adjective
Adjective is a word which qualifies or attributes a noun Hatch and Brown, 1995:228. Moreover, Ansell 2000:294 and Miller 2002:44 state that
adjective is a modifier. To work as a modifier, an adjective is commonly placed next to a noun or pronoun McCaskill, 1990:12. In general, adjective is broken
down into six as the following: 1
Demonstrative adjective e.g. This book belonged to me.; I could not carry those
bags by myself.; etc. 2
Distributive adjective, e.g. Each kid in the party had a piece of cake.; Neither
definition was correct.; etc. 3
Quantitative adjective, e.g. I only had some apples to share.; We would need two
eggs for the pancake batter.; etc. 4
Qualitative adjective, e.g. Your luggage was so heavy.; The mousedeer was clever
though.; etc. 5
Interrogative adjective, e.g. Which shirt did you want to buy?; Who brought
these books here?; etc. 6
Possessive adjective e.g. It was her scarf.; Their books were on the table.;
etc.
d. Adverb
McCaskill 1990:16 Hatch and Brown 1995:230 say that adverb is a word which modifies a verb, an adjective, even another adverb but not nouns or
pronouns. Its function is to tell how, when, where to word extent. Further, in daily communication, there are four types of adverb such as:
1
Adverb of manner, e.g. He ran really fast.; She decorated the cake very carefully
.; etc. 2
Adverb of place, e.g. You needed to stay there.; The bookstore was near.;
etc. 3
Adverb of time, e.g. I spoke to him this morning.; I did not go to the florist yesterday
.; etc. 4
Adverb of frequency, e.g. You never tried hard enough.; I met her once a
week.; etc.
2.5.5. Mechanics
According to Lindner 2005:181, mechanical skill in writing is not merely a set of rules we have to memorize and follow. More importantly, it is a specific
signal for readers which is used to clarify meaning. Fairbairn and Winch 2011:80 add that without sufficient competence in mechanical skill, a writer will
be unable to freely express their creativity and ideas. The use of inappropriate mechanics will definitely affect the writing content. It may not only confuse
readers but also lead them to misinterpret the ideas. In line with this idea, Fairbairn and Winch 2011:83 says that a piece of writing which has a lot of
mechanical errors will make readers feel less impressed. In this research, the aspect of mechanics focused on the appropriate use of punctuation, capitalization,
and spelling. a.
Punctuation Punctuation is a tool which can help to convey better ideas in written
communication. Fairbairn and Winch 2011:81 define punctuation as a variety of devices a writer can use to help readers understand meaning in a piece of writing.
A good writer has to be able to use correct punctuation because it makes meaning
clear and reading easier Oshima and Hogue, 1998:245 and McCaskill, 1990:47. In general, there are four functions of punctuation according to McCaskill
1990:47: to separate, to group or enclose, to connect, and to impart meaning. This research only concerned on five punctuations which is presented in the
following: 1
Period . Period is an important form of punctuation which designate a full stop after
words e.g. The dog is hungry.; signal that a word is abbreviated e.g. p.m., Ph.D.; and decimal points in writing numerals e.g. 2.57 Lindner, 2005:189
and Fairbairn and Winch, 2011:85-86. 2
Comma , According to Langan 2011:573-579, there are six main uses of comma.
They are to separate items in series e.g. The street vendor sold watches, necklaces, and earrings.; to set of introductory material e.g. In a wolf pack,
the dominant male holds his tail higher than the other pack members.; on both sides of words that interrupt the flow of thought in a sentence e.g.
Marty’s computer, which his wife got him as a birthday gift, occupies all his spare time., between two complete thoughts connected by and, but, for, or,
nor, so, yet e.g. Sam closed all the windows, but the predicted thunderstorm never arrived.; to set off a direct quotation from the rest of a sentence e.g.
“For my first writing assignment,” said Scott, “I have to turn in a five- hundred-word description of a stone.; and for certain everyday material e.g.
Did you see the playoff game, Lisa?, 50,000. 3
Question mark ? Question mark is used at the end of a sentence in which a direct question
asked Fairbairn and Winch, 2011:87. It is used to determine whether a direct question is an independent sentence, a clause within a sentence, or a
direct quotation McCaskill, 1990:74. It usually deals with the use of auxiliary verb in the beginning of a sentence e.g. Do you think that I will let
it go? and six question words: who, what, why, where, when, how e.g. Who is the girl next to you?.
4 Exclamation mark
Exclamation mark is used to strongly emphasize a point and indicate that an order may be given Fairbairn and Winch, 2011:88
. For example: Don’t you dare to come again; Keep out; etc.
5 Apostrophe ‘
The two main uses of apostrophe are to show the omission of one or more letters in a contraction
e.g. I + am + I’m, you + have = you’ve, etc. and to show ownership or possession
e.g. Mark’s umbrella, the students’ hat, etc. Langan, 2011:558.
b. Capitalization
Capitalization can turn a common noun into proper noun which helps readers distinguish whether they are reading about a specific person or something
in general Lindner, 2005:181. There are bunch of capitalization rules proposed by Langan 2011:544-549, Woods 2010:195-206, and Lindner 2005:182-188.
However, this research only concerned on six capitalization rules which were commonly used by junior high school students in writing recount text. They are
the first word in a sentence e.g. My father bought me a new bicycle. ; pronoun “I”
e.g. I went to the park last week .; person’s name e.g. Joanne and Georgia came
to my house.; days of the week e.g. Kate visited her grandmother last Saturday.; months of the year e.g. He watched that concert on August.; and
names of particular places e.g. All students enjoyed the tour to Mount Bromo..
c. Spelling
Spelling is the way how letters are constructed to form meaningful words. Good spelling in a piece of writing will successfully impress readers Fairbairn
and Winch, 2011:100. However, some Indonesian students still experience difficulties in spelling some words in English. In using Indonesian, students find
that the way how a word is spelled is exactly the way how it is pronounced. Students have to keep in mind that they cannot apply the same rule while using
English. In English, the spelling of a word can be far different from its
pronunciation. Students cannot instantly spell some new words in English only by listening to the way how they are pronounced. In this research, the researcher
focused on assessing whether or not the students could spell the words in their recount text correctly.
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CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODS
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